We tend to associate drunk driving fatalities with urban areas and populous states, but it’s a major problem for rural and frontier communities as well. I happen to live in one, along with around 80 million other Americans, and alcohol-related deaths are a major topic for concern.
So I was interested when an article appeared on the Science Direct website, concerning the various factors that influence young adults when making the decision to drive while under the influence. In this case, the researchers picked Montana — a largely rural state, where “…the alcohol-related motor vehicle fatality rate [is] almost double the national average.” It’s even higher among young adult Montanans — three times the national average.
Their conclusions, while not startling, were helpful in understanding the roots of the problem.
For instance, the researchers identified “rural cultural values” as a factor. Specifically, these three; “independence, stoicism, and social cohesion.”
The first two are the ones that television western Westerns I have celebrated have celebrated for gemrrati9ns, including on shows like Yellowstone. Social cohesion is less familiar: that’s a term for the sense of shared identity, values, and purpose that we sometimes find in small communities — and much less often in larger, more diverse ones, where people are less likely to know their neighbors, or participate in community activities.
Most interesting to me were the environmental and legal factors that influenced the decision to drive while intoxicated. Rural young adults identified those as “minimal police presence, sparse population, and lack of alternative transportation.”
That I can believe. After all, the research suggests that the most effective deterrent to drunk driving is simply a high likelihood of getting arrested. As long as the driver believes the chances of apprehension are very small , they’re likely to go ahead and risk it.
On the other hand, if they think they might run into a sobriety checkpoint, they won’t. I’m afraid it’s about that simple.
Anyway, here’s a link to the original article, for reference:
Context and culture: Reasons young adults drink and drive in rural America
